Go Behind the Scenes of TF2's "Meet the Medic"

[John Funk]

Go Behind the Scenes of TF2's "Meet the Medic"

​

Valve has shed some light on the production of its (hilarious) Team Fortress 2 videos.

Last month, Valve announced [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111259-Team-Fortress-2-Goes-Free-to-Play-Meets-the-Medic] that its splendid multiplayer FPS Team Fortress 2 would now be completely free-to-play, and released the long-awaited "Meet the Medic" video that shed some light on the game's sadistic German healer. Suffice it to say that, like the other "Meet the (Blank)" shorts, it was pretty rockin'.

A post on the TF2 Blog [http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=5816] has revealed some early drafts of the video, as well as some early-production tests that never made it into the final run. The initial plan for "Meet the Medic" had actually been completely different, as it turns out, as it was more of an origin story - something that Valve hasn't really done before in these videos.

Unfortunately, while the accidental discovery of the Medic's iconic Medigun produced some great rough footage (as you can see here), it had another problem: The storyboard made the Medic feel "weak and ineffectual" since he was having problems doing his job - and nobody wants to feel like their chosen class is incompetent.

In the end, Valve scrapped its origin story ideas to go back to what they felt players viewed as the iconic in-game image for the Medic class: Ubercharging a Heavy who goes and wrecks everybody's day.

There's no doubt that we probably got the best version out of all of the possibilities, but it's always fun to look behind the scenes at a talented developer like Valve and see what could have been.

(TF2 Blog [http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=5816])

Permalink

 

[JWAN]

kinda glad they kept that part out.
It sucked (in my opinion at least)

 

[imnot]

Well they managed to get the kill me spy in in the end I guess

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Valve Time exists for a reason. They need to UBERcharge their vidz.

And some of the lines, there was always the problem that Meet The Medic would be more Mengele than Young Frankenstein.

Doctor, are you sure this will work?
I haf NO idea!

 

[The Great JT]

Glad they kept in the living decapitated blue Spy head.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Yeah that was pretty horrible... at least they understood that and fixed it. Meet the Medic was the best one. It's always nice to see bad first drafts, though.

 

[Owlslayer]

I found it quite funny, tho I'd love to see it in Valve high-end quality.
They really do take a lot of time because they're polishing stuff, a lot.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

The storyboard made the Medic feel "weak and ineffectual" since he was having problems doing his job - and nobody wants to feel like their chosen class is incompetent.

Weak and ineffectual? The gun worked so well that the spy's detached head came back to life and was bulletproof. That's not being ineffectual, that's being too good at your job.

 

[Triforceformer]

The storyboard made the Medic feel "weak and ineffectual" since he was having problems doing his job - and nobody wants to feel like their chosen class is incompetent.

Weak and ineffectual? The gun worked so well that the spy's detached head came back to life and was bulletproof. That's not being ineffectual, that's being too good at your job.

That wasn't the Medic being good at his job, though. That was an accident cause by healing goo that Medic tried because hey. the Heavy's dead anyway.

 

[Irridium]

I feel like they grossly over-exaggerate how long an ubercharge lasts with the final video...

Still, interesting read. And Meet the Medic is totally awesome.

 

[The Random One]

I just saw these on the TF2 wiki. I'm glad they went with the one they did. Look at this scene! It's obviously meant to be funny, but a disembodied head asking to be killed yet being unable to die? That's horror fulm stuff, right there.

The storyboard made the Medic feel "weak and ineffectual" since he was having problems doing his job - and nobody wants to feel like their chosen class is incompetent.

Weak and ineffectual? The gun worked so well that the spy's detached head came back to life and was bulletproof. That's not being ineffectual, that's being too good at your job.

That's a misreading. It refers to earlier version of a scene before the one shown, in which the medic attacks and decapitates the spy. In the first draft, the doctor would be overwhelmed by the wounded's calls for aid and would create the medigun out of necessity, but that's the one people felt made him look weak and incompetent. They remade it so that he was better at his job, but then it looked like he didn't really need the medigun. Then they made it so he was good, but got sabotaged by a spy that eventually became a blood pump.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

To those wondering why the medic and Heavy voices don't sound at all right, animation teams (notably Pixar) will often use their own voices as fillers in test animation/story boarding to help make sure a scene works before they spend money on it putting the polish/paying the voice actor to act.

 

[Febel]

To those wondering why the medic and Heavy voices don't sound at all right, animation teams (notably Pixar) will often use their own voices as fillers in test animation/story boarding to help make sure a scene works before they spend money on it putting the polish/paying the voice actor to act.

Yeah I figured as much, they did the same thing with Wheatley early on, right?

Anyway the thought of the actual spy's voice shouting "Kill me" over and over again had me in stitches for at least 5 minutes.

 

[Twilight.falls]

If only they kept the train scene in, in some shape or form.

Alas, the final product was still great.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

The storyboard made the Medic feel "weak and ineffectual" since he was having problems doing his job - and nobody wants to feel like their chosen class is incompetent.

Weak and ineffectual? The gun worked so well that the spy's detached head came back to life and was bulletproof. That's not being ineffectual, that's being too good at your job.

Oh, I think it was the Medic himself having problems with keeping people alive, not the gun's functions. The Medic was apparently set to be complaining that there were too many bodies and stuff. That people kept dying. Not that his gun couldn't heal dudes or whatever. (I think they're referring to before he makes the medigun/ubercharge like in their original draft, anyway.)

 

[Dragonborne88]

That was a neat read. It was cool to see the thought processes behind Valve's neat little shorts. Glad the final copy ended up the way it did though, that's for sure. They definitely choose the right story for it.

 

[BrainWalker]

The only real problem with that storyboard is it feels more like "meet the medigun" than it does "meet the Medic." Which is kinda cool, just not what they were going for. The medigun is one of the weirdest pieces of tech in TF2 and it's cool that they attempted to give it a little backstory.